Bridge encounters a problem reading the cache

OK, so right off I want to emphasize that this is a BIG and I mean very big PROBLEM. Aside from Bridge's painfully slow search feature - however robust it might -- the potential for a corrupt cache is very real, particularly for the archivist who is a heavy Bridge user.

You launch Bridge and when normally the program opens and stabilizes you see it stall out as it "builds criteria" even though you've selected nothing. That means its trying to access the cache of the interface itself and having a damn hard time doing it.

Then you get the dreaded message: "Bridge encountered a problem reading the cache. Please purge the central cache."

Oh no.

That means all the indexing you've done has to be trashed and you need to start all over again. Which also means that you are unable to search your image library in the process. That's not good.

Well, this has happened to me a number of times over the years and it's never pretty. While you can't prevent this from happening you can anticipate that it will and work around it.

How?

Always have the image library indexed on at least two machines. That's what I do and if you're using Bridge to manage an image library you should, too.

Adobe Bridge slows to a crawl when working on a network via VPN

If you’ve ever tried to use Adobe Bridge over VPN (virtual private network) you might have found yourself tearing your hair out as you wait and wait and wait for folders to open, thumbnails to load (don’t even think previews) and metadata to pop up.

Well that’s exactly what has happened to me recently when I found myself managing our university image library remotely.: Upload and download speeds were dramatically and drastically reduced as well. Not surprisingly, though, once all the folders were indexed the first time, search results seemed accurate and fairly quick in return, which should be expected since the metadata is stored on the computer.

After conferring with the network folks in our IT department, I now believe that Adobe Bridge does not work well with VPN, at least not with Junos’s Pulse (Juniper Networks). I can’t confirm this, of course, but that seems to be a good guess for the moment. Has anyone else had this problem? A quick Google of the issue turned up little recent discussion so maybe I’m out here pretty much alone.

Does anyone have insight here?

"The network path is not found"

If you're using an external source, be it a drive or a network, to access your image library. you might see this annoying error message when re-indexing a folder:

The [drive/network] is not accessible. The network path is not found."

Try this to resolve it: Test the folder several times. If the error message continues, just select the folder, got to Tools>Cache?purge cache for [folder name] selection and voila!

Adobe Bridge - update on our image library

It's been several months since I've posted here, and frankly little has changed except for the size of our image library. The university has more than 205,000 photos representing some 1.75tb of space on our network. Twenty people can access the library, most on Macs. But several using Windows 7.

We've had no major failures or issues accessing the library, although I still continue to have the occasional error message when trying to modify the metadata on images. Usually it just affects one or two photos, though. I hav no hard science to back up this next claim but my PC seems to be more sluggish in accessing the library than my Mac. Go figure.

Anyway, search speed is always the key variable and typically it's going to be slower the more files you have and the more spread out the network (we also use a DFS to ease the burden on our infrastructure).

Still, I've seen no unusual anomalies in search results; they seem accurate across most machines.

So far, so good.

Bridge references acting oddly on my PC

I'm using Bridge CS5.1 (part of CS5.5), on a Windows 7 HP. Some weeks back I first began to notice that I had to reset my preferences every time I launched Bridge.

So, I tried tossing the Preferences file (using a google recommendation) but that didn't work.

Next, I had our IT department completely reinstall CS5.5, including Bridge, but that didn't see to work either. 

One other thing, perhaps unrelated, but my cache remained untouched. I thought that odd only because when we've reinstalled in the past, I had to completely reindex the library. That does not seem to be the issue with this latest reinstall.

Any thoughts?

Corrupted Preferences in Bridge? Try this and let me know if it works!

If you find your cache has become corrupted or otherwise unresponsive or damaged, Adobe's fix is pretty straightforward: go to Preferences and simply purge the cache.  (Of course, you'll have to reindex all your folders/filers.)

But if you find your Preferences themselves have become corrupted, it's a bit more challenging to find a solution to "reset" your preferences to the factory defaults. Here's what you do:

1. Quite Bridge 
2. Relaunch the program
3. Immediately hold down Control-Alt-Shift (PC) or
4. Command-Option-Shift (note if this doesn't work and for older versions of the Mac OS

I have to say, though, this did NOT work for me -- I suspect I would have to reinstall Bridge at some point. But that would mean a total reindex of our image library. I think not.

I'd be curious to know if this works for anyone else.

Fuji X100s

Two weeks ago I took delivery of my brand-new X100s and I was well-prepared. I had already purchased the Kaza combo, half-case, strap and full case cover ($129), a thumb rest from Lensmate ($50), Tom Abrahamsson soft release ($21) and Giottos monitor cover ($25), and they were waiting patiently boxed until the camera arrived.

So, now they're on the camera, how do they stack up and are they worth the additional cost?

Thumb rest from Lensmate: Love it; works like a charm and definitely makes my grip on the camera feel more stable and solid. Note it will take up the hot shoe slot, though.

Soft release from Abrahamsson: Loved it and really like the sense of control over the shutter; but it came unscrewed shortly after I started using it and, unbeknownst to me, fell three stories (I was shooting from an old wrought iron fire escape at the time).  I'll  probably go with a less expensive model (and buy two or three just in case).

Kaza combo case system: Looks very nice, stitching looks even and well done, and feels good in the hand. One of the attractions of this case was ease of access to the battery/card slot cover, although it's a bit tight and I have to fiddle to get it to open.

There is good access to the Focus Mode Selector:

Although a bit finicky to get into place, the tripod screw works fine.

There are a few caveats to this case, however. The full case cover will not close with the thumb rest on and certainly not with both thumb rest and soft release. As a result, I tend not to use it and just leave the half-case on all the time.

Another thing, there is no way to access the connection ports since the half case covers it entirely (pictured immediately below).

The long and short of it is that I believe all these are worth the money; it's not a perfect world and when it comes to cameras one has to take a little finickiness in stride. (Hey how many of us bought the X100, right?)

Finally, I should add the two Fuji accessories: an extra battery (don't even think about using this camera without one) and the lens hood/adapter ring. I like the lens hood but you can't use the stock lens cap with it. It would also be nice if it didn't require a special ring to attach it.